Jail foreigners who infiltrate Ghana’s electoral system – MP

Member of Parliament (MP) for Asuogyaman, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, has urged the law enforcement agencies to deal decisively and ruthlessly with foreigners who contravene Ghana’s electoral laws.

He wants offenders to be slapped with maximum jail sentences and heavy fines as stipulated in the law to serve as deterrent.

“Mr. Speaker, we should let every Ghanaian and all foreigners who are within our border areas should be made aware that C.I. 91 is a different regime. Ghanaians are serious, our Government is serious, the Electoral Commission is serious and Parliamentarians – we are serious in protecting our borders”.

“Because for us to manage our economy well; for us to develop, we must make sure that our borders are safe so that we don’t have infiltrators. I am not saying that we will not have infiltrators but we must make sure that we minimize the infiltration. We have to bring it down so that if you commit an offense, you must be arrested and jailed and we want this to be circulated all over the country so that people will not come and abuse our electoral system”, he noted.

Mr. Osei-Ameyaw was contributing to the motion for the adoption of the report of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee on the Public Elections (Registration of voters) Regulations, 2016 (C.I. 91) which matured Thursday.

The motion was moved by the MP for Akwapim South and Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, O. B. Amoah.

The C.I.91 stipulates that offenders of the country’s electoral laws be fined GHC35,000.00 failure of which you shall be imprisoned for two years.

In the view of the Asuogyaman legislator, it was about time the West African nation demonstrates that its electoral laws would be strictly implemented, believing that such a move will serve as a warning to foreigners who are planning to infiltrate into the country’s electoral system.